h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

My parents generation always remember where they were when they heard the news that John Kenedy had been assasinated.

I didn't really think about this at the time but as the date rolls around again, I can remember clear as day what I was doing when I first knew about the World Trade Centre attacks.

I was sat in my front room watching a film called 'Lost Highway' when I heard my mum park the car outside, she ran in and said "turn this off and put the news on - quick".

That moment, I can still picture it, when the second plane crashed makes me shudder just to think about it - happened right before our eyes.

These moments I know I will remember for ever
What I'm interested to learn is other people's memories of that day when they first heard the news.

Clive.

I remember where I was I found out in a very very odd way. I was getting dressed for school like every morning, and my freind called me, this wasn't so odd because he did so frequently, worrying about math and such. He clamly asked me what the previous night assignment was, so I told him. He clamly said, almost as an after thought that one of the towers had fallen and the other was expected to soon. I of couse called him a liar. As most others would I'm sure. I turned on the TV and stared there with my mouth oppen trying to gather my thoughts. I went to school. It was almost compleatly deserted, each one of my classes had 6 or 7 students. All that day all radios/TV's were turned to the news, fearing what was to come out of the anouncers mouth next. The most frequent question asked was How. The one thought running through everyones mind was how, "how in our country could something like this happen," The question wasn't why, or who but how.

I was at work. My husband called and told me, so I logged on to one of the news sites (CNN I think) and it was overloaded. So I went down to our showroom (we make TVs among other things) an watched the whole thing, with about 100 others, on a massive tv screen.

I listened to the coverage on the radio on the way home, and had to keep pulling over because I couldn't see for crying.

I was at work wondering what had happened to our internet services whn my boss came in and asked if we could put a live feed from CNN or the Beeb on screen in the video conferencing suite I said it was no problem but why would we do that. She told me about the attack and I thought nothing much of it. I set up the link in the room and just slumped into my seat as I watched. We are a very large company with global connections and quite a number of American staff. Quite a few people drifted in and out of the room as events began to unfold. The silence was broken only by gasps of disbelief and muffled sobs. This was the scariest thing I had ever seen.
Suddenly the first tower collapsed and the shreiks and crying became unbearable to listen to. I left the room and returned to my desk.
I sat there for what must have been ages because a colleague came over and asked me what the matter was. I just said "It came down" and he went "what?" . I told him to go to the conference suite and see.
I decided to go home and as I tried to log off my pc I noticed that my hands were shaking.

I was living in Bangkok at the time, and was at the pub with friends, just a typical Tuesday night. It was about 9.15 and almost at once people started getting mobile calls from those watching everything unfold on TV. There was some confusion initially as there is a huge shopping mall in Bangkok called the World Trade centre. I had a call from my flatmate asking me to come home, and telling me what had happened. She was quite upset, but I remember thinking at the time that it couldn't be true, or at least not that serious, that she was over reacting. Thoughts that were quickly dispelled once I was home. I remember trying to talk to one of my friends about it, but she just refused to. She is from New York and she just didn't want to face the possibility that any of her friends that worked in the World Trade Centres were dead.

I was late for my English class that morning, so I didn't get a chance to listen to the news as my alarm clock went off - though I seem now to have a hazy memory of someone with a British accent saying "Afgahnistan" (the Uni radio station has the BBC on during the night and morning hours). On my way to class, someone mentioned hearing something about the WTC having planes inside - which to my sleepless mind made absolutely no sense. Once I got to my class, the professor mentioned it, but without any great detail.

Nothing was made clear about what had actually happened till I got down to the music department after class for a flute lesson to see the entire music department in the one room in that building that has a tv crying their eyes out as one of the towers fell and the Pentagon was attacked (same time? I don't know. I just remember hearing news of both while waiting in the hall). By this point, things were making a bit more sense, though I had to play through my lesson instead of watching the news. (It's very hard to play and at the same time. I don't recommend it).

After that I went back to my room and spent most of the rest of the day in my suitemates' room in front of their TV with the few friends I'd made by that point just watching in amazement. It was like a movie - this university is so untouched and remote - and it was so gorgeous outside. It seemed impossible.

A year later, I still have that terrible feeling of a rat on a ship that's going to sink.

I was visiting a friend's shop round the corner, having a coffee with him. He went to serve a customer, and left the radio on. Radio 2 news broke in and told of the first plane's impact - there was nothing in the bulletin to imply it was anything more than a horrendous accident.

A few minutes later, as I was telling my friend about it, Steve Wright broke into the record he was playing and said something to the effect of:

"Somebody's just handed me a piece of paper saying a plane just hit the *other* tower. This has got to be a joke. This is a joke, right?"

I headed home, and when I switched on the BBC to see a CNN logo, I knew something big was happening.

My wife (in Houston, Texas, USA) was leaving for a volunteer assignment, she ran back in the house and said, "They're talking about defending the White House, turn on the TV!" The rest you all know. I was stunned like everybody, but I recall thinking about the Japanese leader after Pearl Harbor saying "We have awakened a sleeping giant." Somewhat later, I heard the phrase "Let's Roll!" (from the hijacked airliner that the pasengers brought down) and told my wife, "That will be the slogan of all this." Months later I read a London Times article about Afghanistan and the Taliban/bin Laden, who had defeated the Russians in a ten year war: "They dramatically underestimated American firepower". Indeed.

I heard the news for the first time twice. I work in London and was just stepping out of one of the buildings when someone yelled to the receptionist that a plane had hit the WTC. I dismissed it as some idiot mucking around. I walked into the main building where I work to find CNN on the large plasma screens. I don't know if it was a live feed or the footage shown again, it doesn't matter - the second plane hit. The reception area started to fill up with people watching.

I walked down the the building control room, the disaster recovery team - of which I am a part - where all cramped in the same room watching the television. Later, news came in of flight 93 and the plane that hit the pentagon.

The following day I stood on the roof of our seven storey building with some colleges looking at tower 42 - a 42 storey building - trying to imagine two buildings more than twice that size coming down. It was an unfeasible prospect, but it had happened.

We sub-let some building space to an American/Israeli bank who had offices in the WTC, no one was reported hurt.

Liam.

I was at our dentist's. His brother his a pilot so the dentist received a call almost before it was on the news. We rushed home and watched what was happening on the TV.

My whole family couldn't really grasp what happened for days.

Wotchit

- Where were you when you heard about the attacks on the Twin Towers?

At work.

- How did you hear the news?

Colleague told me about the first plane. Logged onto the BBC website, which at the time was reporting, and I quote, "at least 6 people killed."

- What was your initial reaction?

Assumed it was an accident. Assumed it was a light aircraft.

When it became obvious it was a terrorist attack, my initial reaction was "how *obvious*! Now why didn't anyone think of that before?". I was honestly surprised that this was the first time that it had been done, given how devastating and relatively simple it was to accomplish, compared to, say, building a bomb.

- Has your world view changed and if so, how?

No.

- Do you feel less safe then you did a year ago?

No, in fact I feel safer. Before September 11th, airplanes got hijacked, and the passengers sat quietly in their seats and tried not to draw attention to themselves. Most lived, some occasionally died, but generally they behaved, just in case.

There will be, I suspect, a total of ONE more hijacking. And when the bloodied, mutilated corpses of the hijackers are thrown onto the airport tarmac by the passengers and crew who have killed them, it's possible that a message will have been sent.

- What should the Trade Center site be used for now?

It seems inevitable that there's going to be a large office building there, right or wrong, sooner or later.

- Will you be marking the day and if so how?

No.

- Or do you think that it is time to move on?

The first anniversary is an important date - this is understandable and absolutely necessary. Such an event should be remembered. But it shouldn't become an annual event. Terrorism did not start (or stop) on that day.

H.

- Where were you when you heard about the attacks on the Twin Towers?

I was at home getting ready to go to a work detail. I was starpping on my police gear.

- How did you hear the news?

I turned CNN on for some background noise. At that point, they were still speculating as to whether or not it was a terrorist incident. They were showing footage from when the B-25 hit the Empire State Building. Then they said that all air traffic had been grounded. Then I saw another plane on the screen that hit the second tower. I remember thinking, well they didn't ground everything. Then I saw it hit.

- What was your initial reaction?

Callous humor. As I was going up to the detail, I was joking with another officer about watching for aircraft. It's a cop thing. There's nothing we won't koke about.

- Has your world view changed and if so, how?

No. I studied terrorism before this incident. I was well aware of it.

- Do you feel less safe then you did a year ago?

No. The United States is a big place. We could have a full scale war. I ould still take the day off, go to a state park and drink in its beauty.

- What should the Trade Center site be used for now?

I don't know. I don't really care all that much. I think there should be a memorial there. I reckon the rest of the space should be used for offices.

- Will you be marking the day and if so how?

I'm scheduled for a physical with the Air Force. I was toying with the idea of joining the reserves before this all got started. There have been a variety of problems that have prevented it from happening.

- Or do you think that it is time to move on?

I think it's time to move forward. We need to remeber that terrorism can happen to us. We need to counter it. We've gone through too many cycles of interest in terrorism and then forgeting about it.

I guess the first time I heard the news is when the subway stopped for I don't know 10 mins and the conductor came over the comm and said that the train would be delayed getting to the next stop chambers street because of some type of accident at the WTC building...my first thought...yet another pushed in front of a train or mabye a train broke down and they were trying to get it out of the way...that sorta stuff happens all the time so I didn't think anything of it...when we finaly pulled into the station I got out and walked up the steps went through the turn styles like normal and worked my way to the steps leading up...when I got about half way right were you have to make a turn to go the rest of the way up all you heard were screams and people running back down saying get down get down...evidently the second plane had just hit...I decided I wasn't going to make it up these stairs chose a diffrent set of stairs...got up to the street to look up and see big balls of flame comeing out of the towers...my inital reaction I think I said something like "dang that's gotta suck" then I basicly felt pretty angry at the people clogging the streets looking at the dag on thing taking pictures as fire trucks and such tried to make it to the scene...I walked the block to my office building but they were not alowing anyone in so I started my journy uptown to another building we work in...along the way I herd that all the bridges and tunels where closed so I knew no one would be leaving the city any time soon so I stoped to get some breakfast as the first tower came down and started north again...people were still heading down town which again pissed me off but when the cloud of dust started hitting them I bet they changed their minds...I walked to our other building but it was closed and sence I was stuck in the city I figured well I might as well go to central park and get out of the way...I bought a little radio so I could keep up with the news and just about made it there when they opened Metro North for limited service...I had been getting pages the whole time but becuase half the phones where out and the others had such long lines I wasn't able to call untill I got home and tell my boss mom and all that I was ok....the thing that got to me was the next day when I got called in to go to my building past the police baricades how dark and quite the area was with the only light coming from the place that used to be the tower area...and the only noise from jack hammers in the distance of the power companys trying to bring power back online....the police baricade was quite a walk away from my building and it was the strangest feeling to be in the city that never truly goes to sleep and seeing it I don't know passed out


()

i had just put my son on the school bus and gotten in the car to go to work. the radio announcer said something about another plane hitting the world trade center. it was several minutes into the newscast before i realized what had happened, and my first thought was 'what could have caused a dead zone that would cause two planes to crash?' then it dawned on me that it hadn't been an accident.

i went on to work, and after fifteen minutes or so of everyone standing around one radio i went back to the department that sold them and bought a little portable and set it on my cash register. several radios in the area were tuned to different radio stations and we were all sharing information as it was reported. i remember after the second tower fell the reporter just said "they're gone. both of them just gone." and i felt a bit sick.

several of us with children in school contemplated going to get our kids, but then i figured i couldn't make my son any safer than he already was. when the pentagon was hit i remember thinking 'where will it end? how many more hits are planned? are they using these events as a distraction to do something even larger and more destructive somewhere else?' i spent the rest of the day and much of the next few wondering where the next strike would be.

i knew that many things, in a very fundamental way, would never be the same again. the person i was on september 10th was not the same person i was on september 12th.

being in the midwest and never having been to new york i didn't know anyone there, my primary concern was for shea the sarcastic, and when i could log online again i immediately searched for news of her. i was *very* relieved to find she was okay.

it doesn't seem that it's been a year.

in some ways i feel safer than before, in others i don't feel as safe. my safety as an american was something i never thought about, i just took it for granted that nothing like that could ever happen. so just in the fact that it did i don't feel as safe, because criminal minds think in devious little ways that you and i don't and while we're able to prevent a future attack of the same kind, who knows what they'll come up with next? on the other hand security everywhere is higher than it's ever been, and i know that no matter where i go or what i'm doing the people responsible for providing safety and security are doing everything they can think of to keep us as safe as we can be.

will i comemorate the day somehow? i will probably wear red, white, and blue, but i already do that more than i used to anyway. i think it should be observed in some fashion, but i do hope that the media doesn't saturate us with it, there's simply a point at which you're full up and can take no more.

i'm scheduled to fly to the west coast that friday, the 13th. i'm not by any means a superstitious person, but i'll admit that my travel plans have made me a bit nervous. it's not going to stop me, but a couple of family members have asked me about it. at this point i'm actually a little more worried about getting thru the airport than i am about the flight itself.

i remember i was in class. somebody came in and said the white house had been bombed by iraq, so we turned on the tv. eventually we figured out what was actually happening. i remember we watched the tv the rest of the day. sept 11 is my birthday, so i didnt exactly do a bunch of celebrating that night. bad day to have a b-day.

I went to the States for the first time last year, and landed at Boston Logon airport in a United Airlines airplane on the afternoon of September the 10th. That evening and into the early morning of the 9/11 I took a coach up to Maine and in all probability passed two of the hijakers on the freeway. They were staying in a hotel in Bangor and checked out early to travel back the way to Boston Logon.

I woke up at 9.00am in a beautiful part of Maine, on September 11th - my first morning in America. Karen, who I was staying with, was watching the TV and I walked in to the living room to watch the second plane go in.

· Where were you when you heard about the attacks on the Twin Towers?
· How did you hear the news?
· What was your initial reaction?
It was early in the morning, when my wife directed my attention to a radio news report that an airplane hit the World Trade Tower. (Silly pilot, I thought to myself)Later, as I was waiting for our car to be repaired at a local garage , I watched the unfolding news on the television there. When the second Tower was hit I could not believe my eyes, this was no accident obviously.


· Has your world view changed and if so, how?

My world view has taken several wildly ranging views and outlooks, not all due to the 9/11 attacks. There also was a death in my immediate family. I now see things more in the “today”, and let the future take care of itself. Sounds very selfish but hate me I don’t care. We all get one pass through this life, I’m not wasting mine on biting my tounge anymore. If you are a jerk, I’m gonna call you a jerk, that’s all.
· Do you feel less safe then you did a year ago?

No , I grew up wih the bay of pigs and the cold war,I remember wher I was when President Kennedy was shot, I know we are sitting ducks if somebody wants us dead bad enough.
· What should the Trade Center site be used for now?

The plans for a memorial area and a few smaller office towers seems right, if it is all made into a memorial area the constant reminder would(to me) seem like a victory for the snakes responsible.

· Will you be marking the day and if so how?

Yes, I will (on my own) be remembering that day again and dealing with the horror it presented.

· Or do you think that it is time to move on?

We have to move on, but that is not at the expense of those who died that day.
Remembering, praying, or whatever does not mean that you are dwelling in the past. We must be stronger because of our history.
pedboy

I was sitting on my sofa, feeding my daughter who was 10 weeks old at the time when my husband 'phoned and told me to put the TV on. I called to my mum who was with me to switch on the news. I honestly expected to see a Cessna or similar with it's tail hanging out from a window.

I saw the second plane hit and just sat, holding my baby, with tears rolling down my face and feeling very vulnerable and wondering what in god's name I had done bringing a child into such a horrible world.

Since then I feel that in some ways the world has changed - and not for the better. What is more worrying is the politicians who seem bent on starting world war three right now.

We were on Holiday in Norfolk, and having lunch in a pub when someone put the tv on. people started to crowd round it, we wonderd what was happening to attract so much attention.

I went forword to the tv to see what was going on,I thought it would be a big sporting event.
when I looked at the screen I couldnt take in at first what was happening, as I stood there I slowly understood what was going on, One plane had already crashed into the first tower and then in front of our very eyes the second one hit!!

Everyone was stunned, it was so silent, Moments before the pub was alive with busy chatter. now a haunting silence had fallen.

I can remeber feeling like it was the end of the world approaching, it seemed so horrific. we all just stayed there for what seemed like hours as the full horror unfolded, taking in the information but feeling numb.

After a long time people started to talk about it, what the U.S.A reaction what the reprisals would be.
Opinion's were varied, all were scary!!

It is a day none of us can or will ever forget.

My thought's and heart will be with all the people who were hurt,killed and those who experienced loosing someone on the 11th.

I was working, waiting for a client on the 85th floor of the AON Building (formerly the Standard Oil Building), which just so happens to be the third tallest building in the city of Chicago. I actually didn't even know what had happened, but my pager went off and it was my boss telling me "They're blowing up buildings, get the hell out". I went directly to the elevator, and got down to about the 54th floor before security began evacuating the building. I heard whispers about the World Trade Center and maybe even the Pentagon at this point.

After leaving the building, I headed for my train, which was empty, still not really knowing what had happened. When I got off, all I really noticed was how quiet it was... I live directly in a flight path for O'Hare Airport, and there weren't any planes. That was really creepy. It was even creepier when the fighter planes started flying over. I spent some time in the military after high school, and was quite used to seeing them, but it's different when it's your home the fighters are flying over.

I got home and put on the news, and all I really felt was shock. I think the hardest part to watch was people leaping out of windows... that's the one image that really sticks in my mind.

Things felt a lot different for quite a while afterward. I had to start getting to work an hour or more earlier, to allow time to have my bags searched and be run through the metal detectors. As a contractor, getting into clients was difficult for a while. Concrete barricades surround the Sears Tower, the AON Building, the Hancock Building, and all of the Federal buildings. That made it a bit hard to move on for a few weeks. And every client I went to seemed to be having an evacuation drill while I was there. I've never had anything like that happen in my life, apart from fire drills in school. It's a bit unsettling.

I guess it has only really affected me in that having been born in '72, I've never lived through a real war, experienced martial law, or whatnot. Now, I can begin to understand what it must be like to live in constant fear like people in some parts of the world have for decades. I'll never again take for granted how lucky I am.
I've also lost pretty much all faith in the US government to ever do the right thing for the right reason.